Co-op swoops for 632 LloydsTSB branches

There’s very little happening in the pre-season footballing transfer market – instead, all the action is happening in the sexy world of high street banking this morning.

The Co-operative Group has agreed terms on a deal to buy up 632 Lloyds TSB and Cheltenham and Gloucester branches, with £350m changing hands now and another £400 possibly payable depending on future performance. Better value than Andy Carroll.

The deal will mean that the Co-op will have almost 1,000 branches once it is completed, with the bank saying it will become “a real challenger bank on the High Street”. George Osborne has said something about it as well, but we’re not interested in that.

The branches involved in the deal represent 6% of the UK retail bank scene, with about 4.8 million customers who the Co-op will be hoovering up. The sale was demanded by European competition chiefs when Lloyds bought HBOS during the financial murk.

Co-op chief executive Peter Marks told the BBC: "What the banking industry needs is to bring back trust. We've seen over the last few years, and particularly over the last few weeks, trust has deteriorated in big banks. This represents a major change to the face of retail banking in the UK.”

The deal should be completed by the end of November 2013, subject to approval from the Financial Services Authority.

Love 0

3 comments

test m.

wow, £350M up front, then another £400 dependent on performance?? they're really gonna be pushing for that 2nd amount!!